The Conformist

Shot and edited brilliantly, Bertolucci crafted the perfect narrative about how totalitarian regimes are powered both by a small group of committed ideologues and by a large number of people performing as committed ideologues.

I had a chance to see the 4K restoration of this and it's magnificient. The film was beautiful in the crappy 35mm I originally saw it in, but this was a revelation. It's good to see attention being paid to classics.

one of my top 10 favorites

Watch this for the cinematography. Color and light. Applause for Storaro.

Set in 1938, an agent of Benito Mussolini's secret police is dispatched to France to kill an outspoken professor who is opposed to Italy's Fascist regime. The agent, a former student of the intended target, rekindles his friendship with the victim and falls in love with the target's beautiful wife, all while beginning to question his loyalty to the regime. Once you get past the first half of the film, which may feel disjointed at times due to the number of flashbacks, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist is a gripping political thriller about loyalty and self-doubt. More importantly, it is filled with some truly stunning visuals thanks to Vittorio Storaro's beautiful cinematography and some bold directorial choices made by Bertolucci. If interested in checking out Bertolucci's oeuvre, The Conformist is probably the place to start.

The striking cinematography is the hero of this desolate character study.

Dark psychological drama about multiple themes. Well filmed, convincingly acted with some memorable scenes. A classic continental film from the 70s.

In 2021, The Conformist could be considered an insider's look at radicalization. After all, the narrative includes the decision that the main character needs to make about killing someone who happens to be on the opposite side of his ideological beliefs. His former professor is an anti-fascist living in Paris. Marcello carries out his mandate, not without some inner turmoil, and, eventually carries on with his own life. Eventually his survival instincts for himself and his family kick in when Mussolini steps down and fascists are now on the receiving end of ideological violence. Bertolucci bathes this psycho-drama in beautiful cinema-graphic effects which comes awfully close to blunting his fascist critique, but, in the end, the intensifies it.

In this picture, Bernardo Bertoluccio touches on one of the most important themes of the modern world: the interaction of man and society, the dependence of human existence on external circumstances and, at the same time, the importance of realizing individual responsibility for what is happening. The camera work of Vittorio Storaro is simply mesmerizing.

Not only was this an interesting story and the characters complex and relatable, but the cinematography by Vittorio Storaro was beautiful and contributed to the plot and characters in ways I had never seen before. An astonishing film.